Ever wonder sometimes who is growing who? Or rather, what is growing whom? Brief article on the Obamas' chef ends per below:

When the Obama family moved to Washington, they more or less begged Mr. Kass — who had become an uncle of sorts to the children — to come with them, giving him the title of assistant chef in charge of family meals.  ...

Mr. Kass is expected to stay through the end of the president’s second term as one of the last remaining original staff members of this White House, perhaps for no other reason than his love of the garden, where 1,000 pounds of food are grown each year, much of it served on the premises.

“He has this bizarre affection for a fig tree,” said Eddie Gehman Kohan, whose blog, ObamaFoodorama.com, documents the eating life of the White House. She was describing a tree that grew from a sapling donated to the White House by Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s estate. Once, she said, the tree was accidentally yanked up and tossed with the weeds, but Mr. Kass rescued it.

“He was very emotional about it,” Ms. Gehman Kohan said. “He thought the tree was mad at him.”

Funny - I guess we can all relate to what the chef was feeling.  I vaguely remember that the White House tree is a Brown Turkey which is kind of shame given the many interesting varieties that one can grow in our area.

Yes, more interesting varieties out there, but I'm pretty sure BT is the most widely grown fig tree in these United States, so that'd be an appropriate choice.

I do know that Mr. Jefferson was one of the first Americans to introduce the Marseilles fig to these shores - it'd be interesting if the tree was a descendent of one of those...

Hallelujah!!! There's hope for us all!!!!
“He has this bizarre affection for a fig tree,” ... . “He thought the tree was mad at him.”
...and yet he passes the umpteen security and psychological profile screenings that one must need to be around the President of the United States on a daily basis!
So the next time people call out your crazy behavior related to this fig addiction most of us have, take some consolation from this!!!
Cheers!
Jim

If anyone will know about the tree it would probably be Michael ( mgginva )  he has great knowledge of the Monticello Fig Orchards and could probably know who to ask.  OBTW - there is nothing wrong with the Brown Turkey and, as previously mentioned, is truly representative of the fig trees in America, IMO.

No argument here Danny, even when there are umpteen hundred new figs with 10 ratings, I will still be grateful to my first and continuous feast on brown turkey.

Danny, I guess you right.  If one were to choose a fig variety that represents what the average American has in their yard, Brown Turkey (or possibly Celeste) would be it.  Of course for us on this forum if we were trapped on a desert island with just one fig tree I think very few of us would choose Brown Turkey even though under certain conditions it can be a very good fig.

Please don't forget that this thread is about a "Presidential" Fig tree from Monticello.  Unless the tree is 200 plus years old, it is not likely that it was from Jefferson's era.  Michael(MGGINVA)  has told me that most of the trees at/from Monticello are actually from a neighboring plantation orchard and there are several cultivars.  IF MY MEMORY IS CORRECT!!  The fact that there is a fig tree tied to the White House is great!

If I were on a desert Isl with only one fig it'd be a BT -- its what I grew up on at my Paw-Paw's 

I almost died when a storm came through, a pine tree came down and absolutely crushed my BT tree that was over a decade old.  Im so very thankful shes coming back strong from the roots 

Now, admittedly, theres quite a few more that has joined the grove over the past two years...but thats a problem that deserves its own story , hahah

Id love to hear about the Monticello figs!